are “free” games of the month (PS+, Xbox Live, Epic Game Store) actually free? Are the developers giving unlimited copies to the platform for them to hand out/are the developers making money?
In: Economics
They are not completely “free” for the consumer because the consumer has to make/have an account and claim/download the game from one source/launcher. Certain services that require subscription also prevent you from downloading and playing “free” games if you stop paying for the subscription.
Digital goods are much easier to distribute than physical ones. They don’t take up space and don’t need manufacturing. All you need is a place to download it and a way to set that an account owns the item.
For the developers, they usually get a payment from the service if their game gets distributed for free. This makes sense for older games that probably will not get much more money in sales. For others, exclusivity on one platform guarantees some known amount of income rather than leaving the game to face off against others in the often saturated market.
For the service, offering free games is known as a [loss leader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader). By getting you into their service or rewarding you for having it, it makes you more likely to keep spending money later. This is much like stores offering door-buster deals to get you in the store so you’ll end up staying in the store to buy other items.
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